Emo On Esports: Interview with the vP Brothers

Emo On Esports: Interview with the vP Brothers

It's not always the top teams that are the most interesting, in fact it's often the teams lower down the rankings. Two people you could definately describe as interesting are brothers Oliver 'ReL' Whitfield and Phillip 'Momo' Whitfield, most well known as the vP brothers. With Youtube subscriptions in the thousands they have become extremely popular within the scene. Starting out playing on the EU section of Gamebattles they made the move over to Decerto around 4 months ago, even attending ECL2 despite many doubting they would make it. I sat down with them to find out everything there is to know.

Emo: Hello guys, for those who don't know you, can you introduce yourself?

ReL: My name's Oliver Whitfield, I'm 21 years old and live in Warrington. I studied medicine at Liverpool Medical School but quit to pursue my career in gaming (that was a joke). I did leave medical school though and now work full time for Bupa as a Complaints Analyst. My hobbies include Call of Duty (obviously), making strange videos on the internet and I used to play Chess for Cheshire... but as everybody is going to see this let's just say I represented Cheshire at Football or something. I enjoy various video games, especially RTS and was ranked 1st on the global leaderboards at 1v1 and 2v2 Halo Wars (a really really competitive game). I am also really good at Starcraft 2. For years me and my brother have played under "Vantage Point" on all the Call of Duty's but recently got picked up by Karnage, which we represented at ECL. Karnage has now merged with mouseTEK so we are actively looking for an org.

Momo: My name is Philip Whitfield and I have been most commonly known as vP Momentum throughout my gaming career. I'm 19 years old and live with my brother "ReL" in Warrington. I love playing video games and Call of Duty in particular but also enjoy things like Football, Youtube and generally having a laugh. Other than that I am a insurance advisor for The Carphone Warehouse. I have been in only a few teams and the reason behind this is that I have stuck with them for months, sometimes years! I have played alongside my brother since Call of Duty 3, about 4/5 Years in a clan Called vantage point but most recently representing Karnage eSports at ECL2.

Playing at ECL2. Momo closest to camera with ReL beside him.

Emo: Can you tell us something interesting about yourself that is not commonly known in the gaming world?

Momo: Well to be honest with over 100 videos on the internet about our personal life this is kinda hard because everyone knows what we are like. If I had to say one thing it would be that I represented the North West of England in Table Tennis (way cooler than chess).

ReL: When I was a teenager I was so tired of all the hardcore drinking, partying and clubbing that I had definitely been doing ever day that I decided to learn the order of all the elements in the periodic table so that I could recite them back and impress all of my buddies! Whilst I can't remember them all now I think I can get to about the 72nd one.

Emo: Does knowing the periodic table help during important matches?

Momo: On Radiation there is a thing on the wall that says "Rb" - we call it "Rubidium".... Number 37 of the periodic table i think ;P

ReL: You never know when someone is going to panic over which element is 42 and you can just safely reassure them that it is Molybdenum - the greatest of all the elements.

ReL warming up for a GB match

Emo: We're interviewing you today because you've gained considerable notoriety in the competitive console scene via you're youtube videos. Why do you think you've been so successful?

ReL: To be completely honest, when we first started making videos we understandably got a lot more hate on them than we do now because let's face it, they are a bit weird haha. We carried on making them though and I think people started to understand that we weren't actually serious in our videos. I made a video once where I started crying because I went 0-48 in a GB game and people thought it was serious but it was just my elite acting skills. I reply to every message I get on Youtube and anybody I play knows I am a good sport and hopefully realises that I am fairly normal, so now when they see these videos they realise it's all just a big joke. I guess it's just something original to see what two of the world's greatest gamers do when they aren't on Xbox.

Momo: If I am being completley honest I think it started with me being good at 1v1's on Gamebattles.com. My Records were consistant such as 72-0, 106-1 and not only this but I was a nice guy which seems kind of sad, but its hard to find these days on xbox these days. From here everybody got to know who I was and soon to be doubled with no one other the vP Relentless (My brother). Again with some outstanding records this went from strength to stregh and people loved to play against us even if they lost. After this I made Montage's which feautre on my Youtube channel. www.Youtube.com/vPMomentum. People really liked them and as they say "Fame feeds Fame" people talked about us and spread the word and out came ReL with his stupid videos and songs. ReL has kind of just connected with the youtube scene and I dont know anybody who doesn't like him, infact everyone just loves ReL so all in all I would say it was a team effort!

Emo: Have you ever been recognised in the street by someone?

ReL: I personally haven't. Somebody did find out our house phone number and home address though and thought it would be hilarious to send it to all his friends on Xbox, who then sent it to all their friends etc etc. So for a few weeks we were getting spammed by Xbox players and having Dominos Pizza delivered to our door but that all seems to have stopped now.

Momo: Yes, this is no lie! I was at work on a sunny Saturday afternoon on my lunch, thought I would go and eat at MacDonald's, suddenly over come four 14/15 year olds. Next one of them muttered "Momentum" I looked over and literally face palmed!

Emo: You were known as 'GB Warriors' but you've recently made the switch to Decerto rules and it's tournaments, including ECL and various other events. What made you make the move over?

ReL: Well there were a few things, I sometimes feel that GB has this really bad reputation where every single player is labelled as "an immature kid" when that's only true for 99.9% of the community. In all seriousness though, every single game seemed to end in an argument and a dispute, which was very frustrating. With me having a full time job, it also stressed me out that all my teams demanded me to be online from the second I got home until the second I went to bed and I simply didn't have the time to be as sweaty as I used to be. Some nights I can't get on at all and others it is only for an hour. Aside from all this, the website was constantly under unscheduled "scheduled maintenance" and I was sick of Famas and Flak Jacket (amongst other rules) so had to bail and leave my GB roots behind me. Playing on Decerto meant that we could play decent teams whenever we wanted and nobody cared whether we won or lost. It also meant we could get practising for ECL2!

Momo: Was known? I still am a GB warrior with Swanny and Tommey haha but in all seriousness, it was just too easy (not big headed). So we tried Decerto and there ruleset and I hated it at first thinking "Why cant I use my Rapid Fire MP5k with Steady Aim! but after only playing DE for about 4 months I can see my own game improving so much! As they say, play the best to become the best!

Momo + Buster

Emo: With your huge following do you think that you can convert more people over to Decerto rules?

ReL: I think we already have! In a lot of my videos I have explained how the Decerto rules are so much more competitive than any others and also explained the benefits of it compared to "other gaming websites". I have received so many messages on my Youtube from people asking me to explain how to use Decerto which I have happily done and received countless messages for details on ECL3 as there seems to be so many people that want to go (and so many that have said they want to meet me ). As soon as the information for that get's released I'm going to try and promote it as much as I can! I would always encourage any player to move onto the Decerto rule settings, gone are the days that I would whore 3v3 Domination C4 only haha!

Momo: 100%! People already have messaged me stating they will be attending ECL3 and moving to Decerto. This has brought so many people over from GB as everyone is sick and tired of disputes and arguments. I think this is were Youtube comes in too play a little bit as ReL kind of made ECL Montage's and VLOGS about the whole event! I think you said on mainstage Emo that everyone was spamming for Karnage ReL to be interviewed. Also over 3000 people watched that stream which is SICK! Decerto offers much more and as I said before it improves your skill immensly! THE MORE THE BETTER!

Emo:Did it take a while for the Decerto community to adjust to you moving over from Gamebattles? You seem to get on well with a lot of the pro players compared to others, why do you think this is?

ReL: My first attempt at moving over to Decerto did not go so well haha. I had literally never used a forum before so didn't really know what I was doing and created a thread that I believe was titled "ur8 guys, just your GB allstar vP Relentless here". As you can imagine it did not go down to well. I then ended up getting into a lot of arguments on the forums and then just gave up with it all because it was stressing me out. We tried to move over again and I refrained from biting all the bait and just tried to be mature on the threads. I think that we were two of very few players that would actually say good game and give 5* feedback even when we lost games despite having huge records on GB and that people may remember this. We had a team that was on 236 wins 5 losses and on every single loss I gave positive feedback (got link if needed haha). I think people respected that we were good but also mature and were happy to play with anyone however good they were.

Momo: I think alot of people didnt like us at first as when we came over so did some of our followers who went in scrims shouting "UR8 M8". However I think as most people noticed on GB that we are nice guys who have a sense of humour. I think we get on well with some of the top players and teams such as Royalty and PwR as they again are the same in so many ways. In all honesty I think Royalty Tommey and Riddlez just wanted to get in my subcribers box on youtube! What I mean though is the likes of Swanny, Richie, Jolly, Danimal and many more have been so welcoming and I think they all love a bit of vP! Also we get on with unknown players which are lacking a bit of skill which I like to teach, like apeX Crazy - I'm sure Swanny played as "ur8 Swanny m8" at ECL and "vP Richie" so we must be getting accepted.

Emo:What made you decide to attend ECL2?

ReL: Me and my brother had always wanted to attend a LAN as we had been playing Call of Duty for such a long time. We had heard that ECL was one of the biggest console gaming events and with me getting older I was unsure how much longer I would be playing competitive gaming for so we decided to just go for it. We knew that we had absolutely no chance of winning but it was more for the experience and thought it would be pretty cool meeting people that we have spoke to over Xbox, as well as watching the pro teams play. We teamed up with Cookiee and REXZ and went on a huge road trip to pick them up (and take them home afterwards) to journey into Blackpool. ECL2 was amazing and made me want to keep up the competitive gaming as long as I can. Besides, without me my brother wouldn't last a second.

Momo: I dont know to be honest I think it was just the fact to say "we have been to a LAN". Also as we live about 1 hour away so it wasn't and massive journey unlike Reflex GT4 will be, which we are attending 100%. Also we are realist's as i am sure ReL will back me up on. We dont think we are going to win every game and the whole tourney and go more for the fun/social aspect. Roll on Reflex and ECL3!

Cookie, ReL, Aiden, Momo, James prior to ECL2

Emo: You're dad features quite heavily in your videos along with your brother James and your mum. What did they think about you attending ECL?

ReL: Well I try and keep my mum out of the videos etc as much as possible because the internet can be very cruel towards ones mother haha. She doesn't know too much about it all and just saw it as if we were staying at our mates house for a couple of days. I think when we told our Dad we were going he automatically assumed that we would win it. I think his words were "Well you play the game enough so if you don't win it I will be surprised". As for James, well he gave us a crate of beer to take and asked if he could come and rave in Blackpool with us. I don't think he quite understood what we were doing.

Momo: vP Dad, what a legend. He's been planting his claymores whilst we went away. They support the fact we play Xbox and think its quite an achievement in what we have accomplished.

vP Mum - vP Dad - vP James - vP Buster (the dog) - ECL 3

Emo: What do you hope to gain from gaming in the future? Do you think you could become one of the top teams or is it not on your agenda?

ReL: It may come across as negative, but I try and look at things realistically. I think the chances of us becoming a top team are very slim, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying. We are good players and have found two new team mates who are really good. Both of them were in sepearte teams at ECL2 and both beat us (one went on to win the amateur bracket). We have learnt a lot from them and improved our games dramatically. At LAN, anything can happen. I hope to just stay involved with the community and try and get more recognised. Whilst its great that I keep getting recognised in the competitive playlist for my Youtube videos, it would be nice to be recognised as a good player.

Momo: Well if we drop ReL from our team it maybe possibly haha. In all honestly I would love to push for a Top 8 spot but that is not saying we are a top 8 team as we all know that isn't the case yet. This is a personal target which I hope to achieve. Plus all these rumours of Tommey getting dropped from Royalty was because I was meant to be joining was good exposure for me, despite being untrue.

Quick Question Round!

Favourite fast food?

ReL: McDonalds

Momo: Maccies !

Future events you'll be attending?

Momo: All if possible Reflex then ECL3 !

ReL: Reflext GT4, ECL3 and any other major ones that we hear of.

Worst gaming habit?

Momo: Carrying ReL 24/7

ReL: Getting carried by Momo 24/7

Thing you hate most about each other?

Momo: Watching him Play SnD when I am dead.

ReL: Waiting for my brother to join the lobby because hes ranking up in public matches.

Favourite Gun on Blops?

ReL: AK47 (Tiger camouflage)

Momo: MP5K (GOLD!)

Karnage Pre-LAN before ECL2

Favourite Gun on any game?

ReL: UMP (MW2)

Momo: The Trolley (Dead Rising) haha

Your favourite quote?

ReL: "ooohhhhhh nooooooooooooooooo"

Momo: "ur8 vP Momascromaearlobagingerasnowamamacdonaladabobes"

What kind of phone do you have?

ReL: Sony Ericsson K800i, yes I know haha

Momo: HTC Wildfire (you want my number Emo?)

Do you smoke?

ReL: No. Never have never will.

Momo: Willy Petes Disabled (n)

Hottest woman on the planet?

ReL: I heard at ECL that Jolly's mum was a nice lady?

Momo: Kerrbear <3 Babeh <3

Most extravagant purchase?

Momo: £300 Table Tennis Bat!

ReL: Bought 2 guitars for Guitar Hero so I could play with all my friends. I've only ever used one.

Favourite Black Ops Pro Team?

ReL: Royalty!

Momo: Royalty!

Favourite Black Ops Pro?

ReL: Riddlez for the sheer entertainment of standing behind him at LAN.

Momo: Swannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnny

Top 3 prediction for Reflex?

ReL: 1. mythix, 2. Royalty, 3. Fariko (half the teams are Fariko so one has to be in here).

Momo: 1. mythix eSports, 2. Royalty Gaming, 3. FnaticMSI

Emo: Thanks for taking the time out to do this guys, any final words?

ReL: I look forward to seeing you all at Reflex/ECL. If you haven't already check out www.youtube.com/thevpbrothers and subscribe! If it's not for you though then it's all good

Momo: See everyone at Reflex GT and ECL3 will be amazing and a good experince. Check the channel's below to find out more about us .

A big thank you to the vP brothers, who despite a dubious GB history are actively helping bring new talent to the Decerto community and actively boosting our LAN attendance. You can check out their youtube channels in the following links; www.Youtube.com/vPMomentum + www.Youtube.com/ThevPBrothers.

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Never thought I would see the day we got an interview on Decerto haha.

Is this real life?